shake
/ˈʃeɪk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.33 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To move (one's head) from side to side, especially to indicate refusal, reluctance, or disapproval.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The earthquake shook the building."
- "He shook the can of soda for thirty seconds before delivering it to me, so that, when I popped it open, soda went everywhere."
- "Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and now seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him."
- "Shaking his head, he kept repeating “No, no, no”."
- "I became alſo a reproch vnto them: when they looked vpon me, they ſhaked their heads."
- "to shake fruit down from a tree"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *skek-der. Proto-Germanic *skakaną Proto-West Germanic *skakan Old English sċacan Middle English schaken English shake From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”). Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shake”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Slang
- Informal
- British usage